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Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is an animated series produced by Marvel Productions Ltd. which starred the Marvel Comics characters Spider-Man and Iceman whilst also introducing the character Firestar to complete the group. Together, they fought against various villains. Originally broadcast on NBC as a Saturday morning cartoon, the series ran for three seasons, from 1981 to 1983. This animated series was noticeably more popular than the solo Spider-Man animated series that aired around the same time. It has also become more well known in recently years, thanks in part to syndication on the Jetix programming block. As of 2006, as with the majority of the other Disney-acquired Marvel Comics animated series, there are no plans to release the show to DVD. Storyline Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Bobby Drake (Iceman) and Angelica Jones (Firestar) are all college students at Empire State University. After working together to defeating the Beetle and recovering the "Power Booster" he stole from Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) the trio decide to make the team-up permanent as the "Spider-Friends." They live together in Peter's Aunt May's home with her and a pet dog Ms. Lion. Together, the superheroes battle various supervillains. The more memorable stories from the series included various team-ups with other characters from the Marvel Universe. These included Captain America, Iron Man, and the "All-New" lineup of the X-Men, the latter of which made their animated debut on this program (the original line-up of X-Men once appeared in a Sub-Mariner episode from the 1960s). Episodes Season 1 #"The Triumph of the Green Goblin" - While escaping from a mental hospital, Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin and kidnaps his niece at a college campus superhero costume party. #"The Crime of All Centuries" - Kraven kidnaps Firestar and plots to unleash a dinosaur army. #"The Fantastic Mr. Frump" - When a spell goes wrong, Doctor Doom gives a lonely old man fantastic powers, who attempts to woo Aunt May, and causes problems with Doom and the Spider-Friends. #"Sunfire" - Firestar falls in love with Sunfire, a Japanese superhero who is being used by his corrupt father to unleash a fire monster on the city. #"Swarm" - The Swarm, an alien entity controlling a hive of bees start transforming New York City residents into drone slaves. #"7 Little Superheroes" - Captain America, Shanna, Sub-Mariner, and Doctor Strange join up with the Spider-Friends to battle the Chameleon. #"Videoman" - Electro creates a villain called Videoman from an arcade machine. #"The Prison Plot" - Magneto holds the visitors of an abandoned prison hostage, demanding the release of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. #"Spidey Goes Hollywood" - Mysterio forces a movie director to con Spider-Man into starring in a movie. Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Incredible Hulk guest stars. #"The Vengeance of Loki" - Loki masquerades as his half-brother, Thor, and attacks New York City. #"Knights and Demons" - Spider-Man and the Black Knight team up to battle Mordred. #"Pawns of the Kingpin" - The Kingpin uses a mind control device to force Captain America and Iceman to commit crimes. #"Quest of the Red Skull" - The Red Skull kidnaps the Spider-Friends so that they will not interfere in his plot to start World War III. Season 2 #"The Origin of Ice Man" - Videoman returns and Iceman retells his origins. #"Along Came Spidey" - Shocker injures Aunt May, and Spider-Man recounts how he got his powers. #"A Fire-Star Is Born" - Iceman and Firestar attend an X-Men reunion where Firestar recalls her origins (cameos by Magneto and a Sentinel). Meanwhile, the Juggernaut crashes the party in an effort to destroy his stepbrother, Professor X. Season 3 #"Spider-Man: Unmasked" - The Sandman learns that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. #"The Transylvanian Connection" - Firestar is kidnapped by Dracula. #"The Education of a Superhero" - Videoman merges with a game addict, who decides to be a superhero while the Gamesman seeks world domination by electronically hypnotizing the public. #"Attack of the Arachnoid" - A mad scientist turns into a monster when he tries to recreate Spider-Man's powers. He frames Spider-Man for a crime (Matt "Daredevil" Murdock guest stars as a lawyer), and the Scorpion stages a jailbreak. #"Origin of the Spider-Friends" - Stan Lee explains how the superheroes teamed-up to fight the Beetle. Tony Stark makes a cameo. #"Spidey Meets The Girl From Tomorrow" - Spidey falls in love with a stranded alien, whose spaceship has been stolen by Doctor Octopus. #"The X-Men Adventure" - The Spider-Friends visit the X-Men and battle an old flame of Firestar. #"Mission: Save The Guardstar" - S.H.I.E.L.D. teams up with the Spider-Friends to save a mutant named Lightwave, who turns out to be Iceman's half-sister (who oddly was never mentioned in "The Origin of Ice Man, though that could have been due to Bobby weakening during the probe"). Comics To take advantage of the anniversary of the show, Marvel released Spider-Man Family: Amazing Friends #1, during August 9th, 2006. The comic starts with an all new story, Opposites Attack, which is officially set before Web of Spider-Man #75. After that is a Mini Marvel tale titled Spider-Man And His Amazing Co-Workers, the word Friends in the title is crossed off. Both stories are written by Sean McKeever. The rest of the one shot reprints Untold Tales of Spider-Man #2 and Spider-Man 2099 #2. The Triumph of the Green Goblin! In December, 1981 a comic book was released for the new Saturday Morning Cartoon TV Show named SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS. In the comic Norman was coming back to New York but until his helicopter crashes and made him remember who he really was, the Green Goblin. With his new devilish plans, he sets off and kidnaps his neise Mona Osborn at the Halloween Costume Party at the Empire State Univerity Center. The Green Goblin needs Mona to test his serum, in which he would plant it into the City Reservoir. For in due time the whole city will be covered with Goblin freaks. So Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar teams up to stop the diabolical Green Goblin before it's too late. Opposites Attack! While this story isn't in continuity with the cartoon, it is filled with various injokes to aspects of the show, such as Firestar refering to Wolverine as an Austrailian, due to his voice actor on an episode. Iceman recently returned, to the X-Men, but is taking a break from the team. He and Spider-Man are saving the arcades from Videoman, and are joined by Firestar shortly. Spider-Man is determined to play matchmaker for them (Mistaking their quarreling for affection). He succeeds for awhile, but they break up after another encounter with Videoman. For trying to interfere, Iceman and Firestar turn their attention towards Spidey. As a result, Peter ends up with a cold at the end of the story. Spider-Man And His Amazing Co-Workers The story has Jameson assigning Spidey some new partners to help deliver his papers, Bobby/Iceman and Angel/Firestar. Bobby and Angel transform, despite already being in costume. Due to their better capabilities, they deliver the papers at record time. So Spidey decides to slack off, by claiming he's fighting Doc Ock. During which, he plays a video game starring the Hulk. One of the bosses, being Ms. Lions. Bobby and Angel, quit when they decide they want more excitement. Hence they pair up with Hawkeye. Voice credits *Dan Gilvezan - Peter Parker/Spider-Man *Frank Welker - Bobby Drake/Iceman, Flash Thompson, Ms. Lion *Kathy Garver - Angelica Jones/Firestar *June Foray - Aunt May *Dick Tufeld - Narrator (Season 1) *Stan Lee - Narrator (Seasons 2 & 3) *William Woodson - J. Jonah Jameson *William Marshall - Tony Stark/Iron Man; Juggernaut *Chris Latta - Sandman *Dennis Marks - The Green Goblin *Michael Bell - Doctor Octopus Trivia *The makers of the show had originally intended the stars to be Spider-Man, Iceman and the Human Torch, but legal issues about the rights to the Human Torch character (which had also plagued Marvel once before for the New Fantastic Four cartoon led to the Human Torch being replaced by a new character, Firestar, who had similar powers, but was a mutant like Iceman. In addition, while the Human Torch is male, Firestar is female. She has since become a part of the mainstream Marvel Universe. *In a flashback episode, it is revealed that Tony Stark (Iron Man) rewarded Spider-Man for saving his life by secretly funding the hidden computer systems which are present in Peter Parker's bedroom. *Ms. Lion was actually Firestar's dog, as Angelica introduced Peter to the dog before anyone knew who anyone else's secret identity was. However, Aunt May ended up taking care of the dog most the time, with Angelica leading the busy life of a superhero and college student. Ms. Lion actually saved the day in the episode "Seven Little Superheroes" where The Chameleon was the main enemy, since she was able to distinguish the villain from the people she knew. This episode was also notable for including other Marvel heroes, such as Doctor Strange, Namor, and Shanna the She-Devil *Some of the sound effects used originated from Universal Television's Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers. *The pilot episode was adapted into a comic book, which was the first (albeit non-canonical) appearance of Firestar in that medium. *In their civilian identies, Peter Parker resembled the same character in the comics, while Angelica Jones and Bobby Drake both resemble Peter's friends, Mary Jane Watson, and Flash Thompson. Flash Thompson was also featured in the TV series, but had brown hair instead of blonde. External links * *Spider-Friends.com (fan site) *Spider-Man Crawl Space: All Spidey, All The Time *[http://www.tv.com/spider-man-and-his-amazing-friends/show/15788/summary.html Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends guide] at TV.com *Retroland - Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Category:Spider-Man TV series Category:X-Men TV series Category:Iron Man TV series